Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Let’s finish the job.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You cannot shame the shameless.

I was promised a recession.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

The revolution will be supervised.

The willow is too close to the house.

T R E 4 5 O N

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Stronger Together, Still

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Stronger Together, Still

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What’s on the agenda for this lovely summer Saturday?

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  1. 1.

    Quinerly

    Good morning! Early AM beach walk with Poco. Beach time for me with the 4th Tony Hillerman read of the trip. Early dinner with a friend and turtle nest sitting with that same friend late tonight. The runway is built; fingers crossed that the nest “boils.” Have a great day!

  2. 2.

    Victor Matheson

    I am more hopeful today than I was two days ago.

    That being said, I still think Mr. Khan’s speech at the DNC was one of the most remarkable political speeches I have ever heard and am both amazed an appalled that the American people (kind of) elected the guy we did even after his attacks on Mr. Khan.

    Still shaking my head (like I do almost every day).

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    What’s on the agenda? Hopefully buying a pop-up camper. The price is right if the condition is acceptable.

  4. 4.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Quinerly: Careful, one of those turtles may be the next Mitch McConnell.

    Oh, on the agenda…there’s another member’s night at the Huntington tonight. I’m going stag and just taking pics. Except for the lawn area in front of the library the place is pretty much deserted, so good for pics.

  5. 5.

    Zach

    I’m curious why Kelly would even take the WH COS job. Who’d want to be demoted from a cabinet position they’re purportedly passionate about to cleaning up the mess in the White House? And even at that… being hamstrung on day 1 by having the folks responsible for the mess be untouchable.

    I’d like to see Trump asked if WH COS is a more important gig than DHS Secretary. It doesn’t square with his professed worldview at all, but it’s clearly in line with his actual motivations — to look good so that his brand’s value increases and he gets richer. Doesn’t actually care about immigration which makes the racist rhetoric even more despicable.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Zach:

    if WH COS is a more important gig than DHS Secretary.

    It should be. In a normal presidency they hold the keys to the kingdom. You don’t get in to the Oval Office without going thru the CoS first.

    Of course that only makes the answer to your first question even more puzzling. Why in Dog’s name would Kelly take the job?

  11. 11.

    raven

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: No he isn’t.

    He was a four-star Marine general

    Kelly served more than 40 years in the Marine Corps after first enlisting in 1970. He was promoted to brigadier general in 2002 and led Marines in Iraq. He served as the commanding general of the Multi-National Forces West in Iraq from 2008 to 2009. In 2012, Kelly was put in charge of the United States Southern Command, overseeing military operations in 32 countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America. He held that position until January 2016.

  14. 14.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    @Victor Matheson: Khizr Khan is the man. He’s precisely the kind of person that makes you believe in your country, in spite of all the evidence piling up to shake that belief.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Had to call in a plumber to detect (and find) two major leaks in underground pipes on landlady’s property. Crew coming very early Saturday to dig trenches (at least 60 feet long) and replace piping.

    Job costs beaucoups pretty pennies. Took some doing to convince her locating and repairing the leaks was not something her no cost handyman (a/k/a me) could tackle solo, and best to get someone with all the necessary licenses for the work.

    The long rifle-like detection tool the plumber used to check all around the property where water lines run was nifty. Right out of Buck Rogers, appearance-wise. Even made SF-reminiscent sounds. According to him it is good for but a handful of uses then has to be sent back to the manufacturer for recalibration.

  17. 17.

    gene108

    @Zach:

    Doesn’t actually care about immigration which makes the racist rhetoric even more despicable.

    Everything in Trump’s past, from the settlement of housing discrimination in the 1970’s, to his horrible attempt to get the Central Park Five executed, to his embrace of Birtherism makes it seem to me he is plenty racist.

    **************************************************

    On the agenda for today?

    Party! Party! Party! ?????????????????

    My niece turns 10 today. ????

  19. 19.

    Shrillhouse

    This morning I’m competing in my very first triathlon.

    500m swim, 20k on the bike, then a 5k run.

    Should be interesting..

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Water. Her bill spiked last month and the water company called to tell her she must have a leak. No evidence above ground of wetness or mud at all, and no noticeable change in flow or pressure in her house or my cottage.

    Whoever laid the underground pipe years ago used low grade PVC, so not really a big surprise that it is leaking.

  23. 23.

    Shrillhouse

    @raven: Yeah, I hear ya. I certainly won’t be the first one out of the water, so I’ll be sure to start at the rear of the pack!

  26. 26.

    Quinerly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA
    : If I see any turtles tonight, they will be cute little babies, breaking out of their shells and digging up from their nest a couple feet down. 500lb plus mom laid them 52 days ago. This is nest #2 of 10 in Pine Knoll Shores. Nest 1 “boiled” Tues…90% success rate. One little guy’s front right flipper was damaged somehow. He was taken to to state aquarium across the highway for medical attention. His name is Lefty.?

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Last retired general who became chief of staff was Alexander Haig. Three months later, Nixon was history.

  31. 31.

    The Thin Black Duke

    I saw Atomic Blonde last night. Meh. A ridiculous parody of a gritty, cynical and hard-boiled spy movie that, unfortunately, didn’t realize it was a parody. Other than the well-choreographed fight sequences and an addictive soundtrack that reminded you of the days when MTV was good, it was a pretentious and disappointing mess. Charleze Theron, Toby Jones, James McAvoy and John Goodman looked as bored as I was. Meh.

  32. 32.

    bystander

    Farmers’ market in Sullivan County, NY, this morning. Last week’s nectarines made a great crumble, but I’m thinking sorbet this weekend.

    I’m shocked twitler isn’t hard at work already.

  33. 33.

    Raven

    @Shrillhouse: My problem was that I was in the oldest men’s group and the fastest women were next up. They ran over our asses like crap through a goose!

  34. 34.

    germy

    Why I’m Running For President

    My vision for the country is based on my own American Dream. I was raised in a blue-collar family; my dad was a union electrician, and my parents didn’t attend college. Because of a great education and a helping hand from others, I was fortunate enough to become a successful entrepreneur.

    Before age 40, I founded and led as chief executive two publicly traded companies that created thousands of jobs and were admired in the community. I’ve been blessed with a great family and the opportunity to give back through philanthropy and public service.

    As a progressive businessman, I’ve made it a priority to be solutions-oriented and have been consistently recognized as one of the most innovative and bipartisan members of Congress. I’ve done this by simultaneously celebrating the power of our free-market economy while insisting that there is a role for government to set goals and rules of the road and take care of those who are left behind.

  39. 39.

    germy

    @Chyron HR: I never heard of him before today. He says this:

    We need to encourage a more just and inclusive form of capitalism and reduce barriers to small-business formation, start-ups, job creation, investment and growth. We need to strengthen our safety-net programs and create a new social contract. We need to reform the systems of education, health care and immigration, and encourage more volunteerism, impact investing and public service. And we need to take affirmative steps to reduce our security, fiscal and climate risks. This is what my campaign will be about.

  40. 40.

    Chyron HR

    @germy:

    “As president, I will proactively delegate the initiative on simultaneously leveraging our assets and synergizing core competencies.”

  42. 42.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I just got the third rejection on a short story about a woman who bewitches her Etsy account and uses the craft results to embarrass an elected official she refers to only as The Shitgibbon. All three editors sent personal responses saying they enjoyed reading the story and hoped it found a home, but there was too much lag time in their publication process so by the time it came out it would be outdated. I thought that might happen but I made myself laugh writing it, so I almost don’t care. Today I’ll hunt for something that goes to press quickly, if such a thing exists.

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    @germy:
    An uninteresting pastiche of CEO talk that I could have put together in my sleep. This guy might mean well, but he doesn’t seem to have a single new idea in his head.

  46. 46.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    I had to run off to work but saw that about your dad. Those were interesting times. Years ago I worked with a guy that had been a gunners mate (forget the ship) starting in ’43. He didn’t sound like they were concerned about much except the kamackazi. He had a couple of harrowing stories. Hell of a thing to go through

  47. 47.

    2liberal

    re: those SOBs who poisoned the people of flint mi with lead in the water:

    On June 14, 2017, Schuette announced new involuntary manslaughter charges—15-year felonies—against Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley, former Flint Department of Public Works director Howard Croft, former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Office of Drinking Water chief Liane Shekter-Smith and DEQ District Supervisor Stephen Busch. Also charged was Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive of DHHS, who faces allegations of obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. Lyon was also charged with a single count of misconduct in office after being accused of having received notice of the Legionnaires’ outbreak at least a year before informing the public and the governor, while Wells is also accused of threatening to withhold funding to the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership unless the partnership ceased its investigation into the source of the Legionnaires’ outbreak

    LINK

  48. 48.

    germy

    Schooley‏Verified account @Rschooley 9h9 hours ago

    Trump wants cops to “rough up” suspects, son in law to testify in private and not under oath.

  53. 53.

    Schlemazel

    @germy:
    personally I am sick to the teeth of businessmen who think they can be President (no, running a company does not prepare you for running the entire gattammed US government!).

    @Chyron HR:
    Now THAT sounds like a businessman!

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy:

    son in law to testify in private and not under oath.

    That’s not testifying, that’s telling tales.

  58. 58.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah:
    Poco sends out a giant wag of his fluffy tail!? He’s a bit disappointed…he was all ready for his walk (his mom was dragging her feet, BJ catch up) and now clouds and rain have rolled in. Ivan sends out a meow. He’s had his breakfast and seems to be finally taking to the Royal Canin prescription kidney food. We have now tried several brands and this one seems to suit his taste buds. Have a great day!

  59. 59.

    ThresherK

    I got nuffin.

    Well, okay. Last night I watched the second half of a CFL game I recorded Thursday night. Winnipeg stormed back with two TDs very late, one of them on the last play, and won over Les Alouettes.

    (If you’ve never seen a CFL onside kick, it’s hella entertaining, owing to the rugby-derived rules and width of the field.)

    And the best part is, as a CFL fan in the USA, I didn’t have to plug my ears all day Friday to avoid spoilers.

  60. 60.

    Quinerly

    @Schlemazel:
    Me too. Business people somehow think they are uniquely qualified to be POTUS. It fails everytime. Remember when Trump was saying he could do both at the same time? He thought it was especially easy…the Black guy was doing it.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Quinerly: Business people somehow think they are uniquely qualified to tell anyone and everyone how they are doing it all wrong as tho being a soulless psychopath gave them some unique insight into how the world works.

  64. 64.

    Anne Laurie

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Today I’ll hunt for something that goes to press quickly, if such a thing exists.

    Are there online news/magazines that pay actual money for stories?

    Maybe if you present it as an ‘op-ed’?

  65. 65.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    I worked for the publisher of Haig’s memoirs. We actually had to stand up whenever he came into the room.

  66. 66.

    Quinerly

    @NotMax:
    Yep, he’s the one who always who comes to my mind first…then, of course, GWB. I’m blanking on anyone else.

  67. 67.

    tobie

    @Zach: @OzarkHillbilly: @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I’m curious why Kelly would even take the WH COS job

    I think we make this too complicated for ourselves. Kelly took the job because he’s a true believer in Trump/Trumpism, as his brief tenure at DHS shows. What worries me is having so much military brass so close to a President with extreme autocratic tendencies. Trump’s speech yesterday to the police in Long Island was bone-chilling. He’s encouraging all sorts of groups (Boy Scouts, Police, ICE agents) to take the law into their own hands.

  69. 69.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: I’m not going to rewrite history, but Hoover was 10x the technocrat that Romney was and 100x the bidnessman that Trump claims to be. Stanford school of mining, Europe Famine Relief, creating the FCC (a government commission Trump is destroying), etc, is not the kind of resume the GOP wants to be reminded of, because it goes against their capital-f Faith and their small-f faith.

    Plus Romney, Trump, every right-winger, and a ton of centrists, have seemed to willfully forgotten the lessons the Great Depression taught the rest of us.

    Today’s righties have made Hoover, who barely had any ideas except “more of the same” in 1931, look like a quasi-Socialist.

  70. 70.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Anne Laurie: Plenty of online spec fic magazines pay, though the amount varies. Online has to be the way to go though.

    I love this Etsy story. The POV character is a middle aged woman and at the end the FBI comes to her house but dismisses her as a potential problem because they don’t worry about “ladies your age on places like Etsy.” That one soured the atmosphere, as you might imagine!

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    @debbie

    Really foul foot odor? :)

    Ford certainly showed him the exit right quick.

    His total publicly stated ignorance regarding the line of succession coupled with the “I’m in control” statement when Reagan was shot was the third lemon on the slot machine for him so far as I was concerned.

  72. 72.

    Schlemazel

    @ThresherK:
    To be fair though that European famine relief came after his time in office. HST recognized the guys skills and asked him to take the job. The rest of your post is spot on and the reasons the GOP refuse the lessons of the great depression and recovery would be a very interesting topic of research.

  73. 73.

    Peej01

    Delaney is my Congressman. He’s been rather nondescript imo, and definitely not someone I’d have pegged as presidential material.

  75. 75.

    tobie

    Thanks for posting the video, AL. It felt good, especially after the healthcare victory. So glad they kept the slogan “stronger together,” which I always liked.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    He’s getting worse, though, Trump. Lashing out more. The humiliation and firings are about blaming other people for his failures as President. He’s convinced himself it would be going great and he would be wildly popular but for the people he hires and nothing really bad has happened yet- an event outside his influence and control.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @tobie:

    Kelly took the job because he’s a true believer in Trump/Trumpism,

    We already knew he was an idiot when he took the Homeland Security job, we just thought he was an intelligent idiot. Turns out we were wrong, even a bunk of 2x4s would have more sense than to be that close to the arsonist in chief.

  80. 80.

    Quinerly

    @Kay:
    So…if he declares war on Congress, will the Repugs impeach? Then with Pence they have one of their own.

  81. 81.

    Spanky

    @Quinerly: Is that the RC Urinary SO? Spanky (the real one) was prescribed that a few years ago. All the cats like it, so my petfood bills are a bit higher than they maybe should be.

  83. 83.

    ThresherK

    @Schlemazel: I didn’t specify: I meant the post-WWI program, not the Marshall Plan.

    Truman I’m sure recognized the success of the first one when coming up with the second. Nothing is “pure”, of course, but as things go it was pretty damn good example of learning stuff. (The fact that historians have to defend The Marshall Plan to right-wing historo-forgettists is all the evidence I need to see.)

    @NotMax: Yep. But there’s a lifetime of GOPers who haven’t learned from his mistakes. If a technocrat is someone who is at least supposed to dully and uninspiringly incrementally get better, not repeating mistakes should be step on.

    Study question: Is “we need a new President Hoover” the next step for the “FDR prolonged the Depression” crowd? How soon will NPR give us three hours a week examining this “issue”?

  85. 85.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Though I’m skeptical he’ll sign the sanctions bill, I’m curious to see the bullshit Trump spews in his signing statement for it.

  86. 86.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Donald J. Trump‏@realDonaldTrump

    I am pleased to inform you that I have just named Wile E. Coyote as White House Chief of Staff.

    4:49 PM – 01 Jan 2018

  89. 89.

    Schlemazel

    @Quinerly:
    The GOP has to be very careful because their base (i.e. morans) are still in love with hair furor and have convinced themselves that he is doing a wonderful job and any attack on him is either the “deep state” or commies. If they move to impeach it could be the death of the GOP as we know it. Wile I sincerely wish for both of those things to happen my guess is none of the spineless, mindless, useless sacks of shit serving in Congress is going to go easily into that good night

  90. 90.

    debbie

    Judging by Trump’s tweets this morning (6 already!), no one’s yet taken the time to educate him on how the Senate works.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @Spanky

    Swear to dog I keep reading that as the RC Urinary 500.

    “Who the hell sold Royal Crown cola on that idea?”

  92. 92.

    Quinerly

    @Spanky:
    This one is the wet Royal Canin Renal Support E. He didn’t care for the others that were flakes. This one is the pate one. Cheaper on Chewey website. I had a hook up for Hill’s Science Diet prescription one for free…of course, Ivan wouldn’t touch it. He does like the dry Royal Canin too.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    @ThresherK: My impression is that the “FDR prolonged the Depression” crowd lionize Calvin Coolidge, and believe that the crash and the crisis happened because Hoover was too much of a tax-and-spend liberal. You can see it in their edits to Coolidge’s Wikipedia page (with cites of Amity Shlaes, who is the queen of this stuff).

  94. 94.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    Morning! Are you still selling your hats on Etsy? Some of my friends are interested, and I still think yours are the best of the lot.

  95. 95.

    Quinerly

    @debbie:
    Thanks for pointing out he’s tweeting this AM. I had checked much earlier. Looks like Trump slept in. MSNBC is floating the idea that Sessions will move over to DHS.

  96. 96.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Thanx for that.

    My father wasn’t in the Navy, he was a rifleman, Battle of the Bulge. Whenever I see old photos I always find myself looking for him.

  98. 98.

    Schlemazel

    @ThresherK:
    Ah, sorry I mistook the reference. You are correct & it was part of why Truman chose him

    “historo-forgettists great tag !

  99. 99.

    A Ghost to Most

    @NotMax:
    I feel her pain. We just had our cast iron kitchen drain line collapse, meaning jackhammering in the basement, and $11k to the plumber. We often get big house bills right before/after vacations; so often we are resigned to it.

  100. 100.

    efgoldman

    @germy:

    I never heard of him before today.

    Sounds like the offspring of Republiklown-Lite and Mike Dukakis.

    No chance.

  101. 101.

    ThresherK

    @Matt McIrvin: The very marginal interest I’d have in reading Coolidge’s wiki evaporated at “Amity Shlaes acolytes editing Wikipedia without adult supervision”, and I thank you for the warning.

    I guess it’s to the stacks in the library, if the Randians haven’t just flooded history books with tons of Post-It notes bearing “corrections”.

  102. 102.

    efgoldman

    @2liberal:

    those SOBs who poisoned the people of flint mi with lead in the water

    How many of them were appointed by RWNJ Governor Snyder or his pet legislature?

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    The sanctions bill is itself a humiliation- it limits his power to override. He must be furious. He doesn’t know anything about separation of powers- he’ll take it personal.

  108. 108.

    msdc

    @germy: Finally, the candidate Democrats have been clamoring for – a multimillionaire three-term congressman from a conservative district!

    Hope the partisan gerrymander that put Delaney in office is strong enough that we can hold the seat he is so graciously vacating for his pipe dream.

  109. 109.

    gene108

    @NotMax:

    cough* Herbert Hoover *cough*

    There are a few Presidents for whom being President is not the pinnacle of their accomplishments. Hoover is definitely in the group.

    As Commerce Secretary he got a bunch of states to agree to share the water and electricity from a dam that was being built on the Colorado River.

    As a private citizen he got relief efforts organized for Europe, during and after WW1, which rightfully catapulted him to prominence.

    And unlike our most recent CEO Presidents, he was a self made man, who was very successful as a mining engineer and business owner.

  110. 110.

    germy

    @msdc: I get suspicious when he talks about “education reform” because that’s usually code for charters.

  111. 111.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I wish he would expand on how growing up in a solid middle class household gave him the ability to go to college. They’re missing this crucial link. The worry about the middle class disappearing isn’t about one generation- it’s about the generation that came out of a big middle class. Economic security ripples. It pays off for more than “union electrician” (his father) – it pays into the next generation. Him. He needs to see that was the essential piece.

    They need to see how this works over time. If you have an economically secure generation behind yours you have a solid base to move up. That’s the worry- that we’re eroding that base, that launch pad.

  113. 113.

    gene108

    @Quinerly:

    Jimmy Carter, since farming is as much a business as real estate, mine engineering and energy exploration and owning a baseball team.

  114. 114.

    Schlemazel

    @Kay:
    Gosh I hope he takes it personally & that it eats at him every minute. I hope he really opens up against the GOP particularly.

  115. 115.

    efgoldman

    @Kay:

    That’s the worry- that we’re eroding that base

    This is ‘Murrika Fuck Yeah, Kay. We’re not allowed to think beyond the next quarter.

    :::flips through::: It’s right in this here constitution somewhere.

  117. 117.

    Quinerly

    @gene108:
    But he was a governor. Plus, I think he might have served in the Georgia state legislature. And, that whole Navy gig. Oh, man…how could I forget GWB was governor of TX. The beach has truly fried my brain. Looks like Trump is the only “pure” business dude we have had.

  118. 118.

    Chet

    That video has me tearing up. It’s breathtaking how far we’ve fallen in a year. But we did stop the Obamacare repeal. I have hope.

    I just got back from a run and a stretch. Fixin’ to scare up some breakfast, then clean off my desk.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – New revelations that Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) spent years enrolling unknowing borrowers in costly auto insurance has put the bank under new pressure to answer for a months-long scandal over sales practices that have harmed millions of Americans.
    The latest news that 800,000 Wells Fargo auto borrowers were improperly charged for insurance rattled investors yet again, and sent its stock down 2.6 percent on Friday.
    Shareholders, analysts, lawmakers and consumer advocates demanded answers about how the situation manifested, and why Wells Fargo did not disclose the problems sooner, given existing turmoil over phony deposit and credit card accounts opened in customers’ names without their permission.
    “This is a full-blown scandal — again,” said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who oversees public pension funds that hold roughly 11.6 million Wells Fargo shares. “It’s unbelievable, outrageous, sad, and yet quintessential Wells Fargo. This isn’t just a corporate debacle. It’s caused real human harm.”
    Stringer called on the bank to install a new independent chair and “immediately” disclose more information.

    Someone should tell Wells Fargo that stealing from their customers isn’t a legitimate business model.

  120. 120.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @germy: John Delaney is my congressman. He’s been an okay representative — the district is mixed, some very conservative areas and some very liberal areas (From Western Maryland to Montgomery County). He is going to get some fierce opposition as while Maryland has some wacko gerrymandered districts, the 6th isn’t one of them. It’s geographically contiguous, but since it splits up Democratic areas, especially Montgomery, and Delaney defeated a long term tea party ass hat since the redistricting, he’s got a lot of haters. I don’t know if it is his temperament or the district, but he is very low key and has disappointed me several times (he voted against the Iran accords). This is somewhat shallow, but he isn’t charismatic, and based on the elections of Macron, Trudeau, and, heaven help us, Trump, a candidate needs star power. Martin O’Malley is more charismatic than Delaney. He’s also very pro reach across the aisle, comity, we can work together, etc. He also made his money in the health care business, so if he isn’t health care progressive, that is a big stick for attack. For anyone interested in him, he does have an excellent facebook feed — he lists what is on the docket for each week of sessions, his meetings, etc. He posts more than any other politician I follow (including Rep. Kennedy). Read the comments — you’ll get a good feel for what bothers his haters and his middle of the road stance.

  121. 121.

    rikyrah

    Jul. 28, 2017 at 4:33 PM
    McConnell Overreached On Health Care And Paid The Price

    By Nate Silver

    What happened in the Senate early Friday morning was a rarely seen political event of the sort last observed in September 2008, when a financial bailout vote unexpectedly failed on the House floor. Republican leadership thought they’d lined up the 50 votes necessary to pass a “skinny repeal” health care bill in the Senate. They had only 49.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has had plenty of failures, along with plenty of successes. But it’s rare for Senate or House leadership to send votes to the floor unless they know the outcomes ahead of time and even more unusual for them to fail in such embarrassing fashion.

    All of this drama obscures a more important point, however: Republicans have not yet come all that close to passing the health care bill they wanted. And they didn’t come that close Thursday night. True, the Senate was just one vote short of approving “skinny repeal.” But even if the Senate had approved the bill, they still had a long way to go in a process whose outcome was highly uncertain.

    Many Republicans who voted for “skinny repeal” didn’t like it on its own terms — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham called it a “disaster,” for instance — but instead viewed it as a vehicle to open up negotiations with the House on a more sweeping bill. But there’s no indication that a more comprehensive measure cooked up in those negotiations could have passed the Senate. Instead, McConnell had repeatedly failed to secure enough support for the Senate’s original health care bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act; a vote to advance that bill failed 43-57 on Tuesday, with nine Republican defections.

    If the House and Senate were unable to agree on a compromise, the House could have voted on “skinny repeal,” which — having already been approved by the Senate — would have gone to the president’s desk. The terms of the legislation, officially called the Health Care Freedom Act, included the provision to defund Planned Parenthood and other “goodies” that seemed designed to win over conservative votes in the House.

  122. 122.

    tobie

    @germy: I live in Maryland and have no idea what Delaney looks like. This is a small state. It shows how little, umm, stage presence this guy has.

  124. 124.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: My old man flew B-29s in the Pacific, but I had uncles all over the place and in every service. The one who didn’t come back was the only one who never saw combat, his C-47 broke up on landing- after the war.

  125. 125.

    rikyrah

    Jul. 28, 2017 at 7:41 PM
    The Party Establishment Wing Of Trumpworld Collapses

    By Perry Bacon Jr.

    ………………………

    So what the hell is happening in the Trump administration? (Yes, beyond the volatile president.) Earlier this year, I wrote that there were at least eight power centers in Trumpworld and that they would compete with one another for influence. One of my assumptions in writing that article was that Trump, with little experience in Washington or in government and lacking a well-defined policy vision, would be fairly malleable — which might give his advisers more influence than advisers had under previous presidents.

    I was wrong, to some extent. It’s still not clear that Trump has defined views on, say, U.S. policy in North Africa or how health care marketplaces should work. But six months into the administration, some of his preferences have become clear: He seems to trust family members and his associates from New York more than people with long experience in policy or politics, even on matters of policy and politics. He does not share the deep wariness about Russia and Vladimir Putin that is held by both Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington. His favorite kinds of policies appear to be ones that reverse something former President Barack Obama did. And he seems to have no intention of courting traditional Beltway constituencies like the D.C. press corps, the foreign policy establishment or even GOP congressional leaders.

    Those four preferences don’t mesh well with the skills, connections and credentials that some of the key people in his administration bring to the table. As a result, those aides are at times either marginalized or pushed out.

    This isn’t just a Beltway story of who is up and who is down. It matters. The people who aren’t in sync with Trump on his core preferences could lose their ability to set policy in areas where the president does not have strong views. So let’s revisit our eight power centers.

  126. 126.

    tobie

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Maybe I missed a recent post but I was wondering how your work helping citizens get the documentation they need to vote was going. This is so important. I’d love to hear if the church where you’re volunteering has contacts with churches doing similar work in swing states.

    Thanks, too, for the info on Delaney. You know more since he’s your rep that most of us do.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @efgoldman:

    I see it in my practice. You’d be amazed how even a well-timed 20,000 dollar transfer of value (money, paid-for education, etc), parent to grown kid, can make a huge difference over time. The fear is that when those stop it will spiral down in the same way the upward mobility spiraled up. A middle class just throws off all sorts of good things. I don’t think we’ve even started to appreciate how much long-term value that base provided.

  128. 128.

    rikyrah

    POLITICS 07/28/2017 04:21 pm ET
    If You Come At Sen. Lisa Murkowski, You Best Not Miss
    Ryan Zinke just threatened a senator with enormous power over his agency.
    By Chris D’Angelo

    WASHINGTON — With a couple of phone calls to Alaska’s Republican delegation, the Trump administration apparently thought it could bully Sen. Lisa Murkowski into supporting her party’s attempt to repeal Obamacare.

    The approach was both rookie and reckless, according to former Interior officials. In the end, the Alaska senator stood her ground, joining two other Republican senators in defeating a “skinny” repeal of the Affordable Care Act early Friday morning.

    The issue began when Murkowski voted Tuesday against a measure to begin debate on a health care bill. President Donald Trump used Twitter the next day to voice his dissatisfaction, saying Murkowski “really let the Republicans, and our country, down.”

    On Wednesday night, the Alaska Dispatch News first reported that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had phoned Murkowski and fellow Alaskan Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) following Tuesday’s vote. Zinke delivered a “troubling message,” indicating that Murkowski’s defection could jeopardize future Alaska projects, in particular those involving energy extraction, Sullivan told the paper.

    In other words, Zinke wanted Murkowski to fall in line ― or else.

    But what Zinke and Trump apparently failed to consider before issuing the apparent threat is that government is a two-way street — and Murkowski has a great deal of influence. As chairwoman of both the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Murkowski has oversight over the Interior department and its funding. That puts her in a unique position to either advance or obstruct the administration’s energy priorities.

  129. 129.

    Another Scott

    @tobie:

    I think we make this too complicated for ourselves. Kelly took the job because he’s a true believer in Trump/Trumpism, as his brief tenure at DHS shows.

    There’s that.

    But I think that even if he weren’t (and I agree that he must be or wouldn’t have taken the job and run DHS and ICE the way he has), he’s a military guy. “Up or Out.” If you’re a general and you’re given a job offer or a “promotion” opportunity, there’s little opportunity to refuse. If the President says he wants you to do something, you say “sir, yes sir!”

    I agree with others that Kelly is likely to have a short term there, and he seems to have little if any power to control the situation. Given who Trump is, it probably doesn’t matter who has the position – it’s a hopeless job. Bannon and Javanka and Pence and Sessions and all the rest are going to continue to push their own agendas no matter who is CoS. But he had to take the job.

    Or resign.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  130. 130.

    germy

    @msdc: Your LGM comment was interesting:

    WTF is he thinking? We just picked up that seat in 2012 after a redistricting (a rare example of a Democratic gerrymander) – before that it was held by a Republican for 20 years. We need that seat. This idiot just made retaking the House that much harder.

  132. 132.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @tobie: Thanks for asking. I’ve been accepted, but I needed some down time from work. I’ll be starting working a day a week in about a month. I’ve also been accepted to volunteer at an owl sanctuary!

  133. 133.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

    Tune-in next Friday for the next episode of Celebrity Apprentice — White House Edition, to see who I will fire.

    9:49 AM – 29 Jul 2017

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Morning Kay. You are consistent with this message, and you are absolutely on point.

    PS-missed you in the Trumpcare goes down threads from yesterday. Hope you point out to everyone in Trumpland that the GOP was ready to take away their healthcare, including their precious Portman. I believe getting those votes on the record is important.

  135. 135.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah:
    Thanks for posting this. I especially like Perry Bacon’s writing. Haven’t seen much of him as of late on MSNBC.

  136. 136.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    Someone should tell Wells Fargo that stealing from their customers isn’t a legitimate business model.

    I know I know I know…. TRUMP!

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. gasp….. wheeze…..

    Sometimes I just crack me up.

  138. 138.

    randy khan

    @ThresherK:

    reating the FCC (a government commission Trump is destroying)

    In fairness, the two Republicans running things now were not appointed by Trump. Thanks to a ludicrous arrangement in which the House and Senate each pick one Republican and one Democrat for the President to appoint (something that’s not in the law but has been a custom since the Clinton Administration), the holdover Republicans have drunk the kool-aid and basically are overturning everything they didn’t like from the last 8 years.

  140. 140.

    Jeffro

    What’s on the agenda? Racking up my kayak and heading out for a weekend with my college buds! There may be beverages involved at some point…

    On a totally unrelated note: while doing the grocery shopping this morning, I saw a display of “pumpkin spice” LIFE cereal. Seriously, Quaker, WTF – it’s JULY!! ?

  143. 143.

    A Ghost to Most

    @OzarkHillbilly: If anyone familiar with WWII B-24 bomber photos knows of a photo of ‘Better Late Than Never’, my wife would be eternally grateful.

  145. 145.

    Jeffro

    Btw, George Will’s column today is what we mean when we say “scathing” – an absolutely delightful take down of both Trumpov and Scarucci (with a nice slap at Sessions to boot)

  146. 146.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @germy: I’m not too concerned about the Democrats loosing the 6th. This particular Maryland District tracks very well against any congressional maps drawn by computer experts. The 6th has the largest chuck of Montgomery County. Many of my Democratic friends in MoCo are upset that the County is split into three districts. MoCo is too large for a single district, so this way MoCo has three congressman beholden to them — Delaney, Raskin, and Sarbanes. This means MoCo as the biggest populated area in the state has more clout. And while Raskin is most progressive, they all work together, along with Anthony Brown next door in PG County. That being said, I think Delaney has misread the Democratic mood and made an error. Comity and better business as usual is not going to cut it. I am not inclined to volunteer for him unless he is close to the last man standing. Of course, I’m not good at guessing politics — I thought Gov. Hickenlooper from Colorado had potential, then he started his “friendship” tour with Kasic and was terrible, both in that choice and in his public speaking/persona.

  147. 147.

    Chris

    @Schlemazel:
    @Quinerly:

    Totally this, although I’d add that what makes it even worse is that our last two businessman-presidents weren’t even good at being businessmen – they fucked up everything they touched and only failed upward because they were born rich.

    Which tells you a lot about how these people perceive businessmen. “Businessman” isn’t even a resume item that requires you to have done something. It’s a title of nobility that means “I’m better than other people.” Just like in the old days when nobles who pissed away the family fortune could comfort themselves with the knowledge that they were still better than other people, what you actually do with the title is irrelevant: all you need is to have it.

  149. 149.

    msdc

    @germy: Yeah, malraux talked me down a little on the risk to the seat. Still a boneheaded move for Delaney, though. It’s like he decided the problem with Lincoln Chafee was that he had too much federal and executive experience.

  152. 152.

    Laura

    On tap for today is a long walk with Chet the weinie dog before it’s too hot. Aqua aerobics with a friend and then I’ll bake up a pan of pigs in a blanket for a tailgate before heading over to the ballpark. Our triple A team just welcomed Pablo Sandoval back after he broke hearts bailed on the Giants and followed crazy money to the Red Socks. Fireworks after the game.

    They’re predicting 114° by Wednesday. I can’t even . . .

  154. 154.

    matryohshka

    @raven: My stepdad was on the St. Lo, which was sunk by kamikaze in the Leyte Gulf. He waited in the water for several hours with body parts floating all around him. It wasn’t a place he ever wanted to go back to.

  155. 155.

    ThresherK

    @randy khan: Fair enough observation. But, once again, we’re looking at “Republican governance” being an oxymoron, and Trump being the culmination of GOP politics, not an outlier.

    PS As a radio ham who got my ticket when “solid state, except for vacuum tube transmitter finals” was the cutting edge, I claim a personal stake in FCC fuckery.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    .And he seems to have no intention of courting traditional Beltway constituencies like the D.C. press corps, the foreign policy establishment or even GOP congressional leaders.

    This stuff is almost funny. Some journalists still have no idea that this stuff means nothing to Trump.

    And instead of courting traditional Beltway constituencies, Trump expects their deference to his wishes.

  160. 160.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    Love this video. This is the Resistance. This is what the Democratic Party stands for. These people warned us about Trump from the very stage of the Dem Convention. And they are the ones who are most under attack currently. They need to be centered in the Dem platform. It drives me mad when people say we had no coherent message during the 2016 campaign. We had a great one. Some people on the Left just weren’t listening.

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